Jedna z najważniejszych światowych powieści gatunku science fiction. Opowiada o inwazji Marsjan na Ziemię, którzy zamierzają skolonizować Błękitną Planetę, a z jej mieszkańców uczynić pożywienie. Sieją spustoszenie w Londynie i jego okolicach, próbując podporządkować sobie ludzką rasę. Marsjańskie zagrożenie wyzwala w ludziach najgorsze instynkty, ludzie okazują się zdolni do każdej niegodziwości.
Nowela E.T.A. Hoffmanna opublikowana w 1814 roku jest uważana za arcydzieło w dorobku pisarza. Opowiada ona o przygodach młodego studenta Anzelmusa, który musi zmierzyć się z siłami nadprzyrodzonymi i nauczyć się odróżniać dobro od zła. E.T.A. Hoffmann to niemiecki poeta i pisarz romantyczny, jeden z prekursorów weird-fiction, czyli fantastyki grozy. Jego twórczością inspirowali się w późniejszych latach tacy pisarze, jak Edgar Alan Poe, Howard Phillips Lovecraft czy Gustav...
This early work by Ernest Bramah Smith was originally published in 1911. „The Moon of Much Gladness Related by Kai Lung” is the fourth book in the Kai Lung series. The China which Kai Lung inhabits has numerous features of the fantasy Land of Fable, and many of the embedded tales are fantasy; all are told in an ornate manner which ironically, often hilariously, exaggerates the old Chinese tradition of understatement and politesse. Ernest Bramah was born was near Manchester ...
The old godless captain Stormfield believed neither in God, nor in hell, nor in paradise, nor in hell. Imagine his surprise when, after his death, flying through the bottomless depths of space, he nevertheless arrived in paradise. He was even more surprised when he became acquainted with the local order – it was too painfully different from the stories about the paradise of priests on Earth...
The novel tells the story of a future world affected by an epidemic. The first part of the novel begins with a story about the youth of Lionel Verney, about his friendship with the radiant prince Adrian, the son of the abdicated king of England, about his love for the sister of Adrian Idris. Verney has a sister to Loss, with whom the proud Lord Raymond is in love. For the sake of marrying her, he refuses the hands of Idris and, for a while, from the post of Lord Protector o...
A collection of ten short stories of supernatural phenomena, psychic events and the occult. „These stories are founded on the deepest and highest range of Asiatic thought though the scenes of some are in the West. That thought is as vital for the West as for the East. The background is fictional but the stories are all true. In this connection I draw attention especially to the two entitled respectively „Hell” and „The Man Who Saw” – L. Adams Beck (E. Barrington). E. Barrin...
This is a book about a man of 1887, who turned out to be in 2000. It was actually written in 1887, and author Edward Bellamy predicts certain things, such as radio and credit cards. The main character discovered that all social class differences were erased, and there is a utopian society. He wonders how in the twenty-first century all kinds of music are available at the touch of a button. Credit card replaced the money. The author compares the 21st century and 19 in the no...
”Equality” is a utopian novel, and the sequel „Looking Backward: 2000-1887.” The main character from 1897 wakes up in 2000. Everything seems unusual to him. He learns that women are free to participate in the same auction as men. Gold coins become useless. Now vegetarians, and the thought of eating meat is perceived with disgust. How now to go back and whether to return at all?
The plot of Shadows of Ecstasy is based on the fact that the madman decided to destroy Western civilization. The author could easily punish such a madman. However, as in many of his stories, a person receives forgiveness from God. The plot of the novel is tense, supporters of paganism are trying to protect their world.
Another magical, mischievous Thorne Smith classic. Though Thorne Smith’s most popular works involve elements of fantasy and science fiction, the clever novel „Turnabout” takes his penchant for incorporating supernatural and magical themes in his work and puts one such plot twist to use as a comedic tool. A classic battle of the sexes, it was published in 1931 and follows a married couple who fall prey to the tricks of an Egyptian idol who grows weary of the seemingly never-...
This early work by Thorne Smith was originally published in 1930. James Thorne Smith, Jr. was an American author who specialized in supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. „Did She Fall? „ (1930) is a straight murder mystery whose dialogue shows occasional traces of Smith’s wisecracking energy. America’s bawdiest, wittiest writer turns his talents to a startling novel of murder, suspense and brilliant detection. Welcome to the Crewe house, where it is on...
Thorne Smith’s imaginative novel „Skin and Bones” takes the concept of suffering for one’s art to a whole new level. This classic book contains the humorous and fantastical story of Mr. Quintus Bland, the eminent photographer, whose efforts to perfect X-ray film had, one evening, the unfortunate effect of leaving Mr. Bland in the position of an X-ray film himself; in other words, him found himself no more than a walking skeleton. Bland’s flesh does not merely become invisib...
Perhaps the best example of Thorne Smith’s acutely sharp social humor played out against a backdrop of the Prohibition. 60 year old Rex Pebble inadvertently discovers that the fountain of youth happens to be in his back yard swimming pool. A magical statue of a nymph by the name of Baggage, an ornamental pool decoration, has playfully endowed the Pebble swimming pool with the power to reverse the aging process. From there Rex, his wife and his mistress of twenty years, Spra...
Who hasn’t waited for a ride in the pouring rain and wondered if there wasn’t something more to life? This is exactly how we find poor Mr. Owen, hopeless and downtrodden, wet and miserable. Suddenly, he is swept in through a doorway to a place full of wild imaginations, where loneliness and unfulfilled dreams are a thing of the past. It is the story an adulteress’s husband who embarks on inebriated adventures with his various partners and a girl who works in a pornographic ...
The protagonist is a rich scientist who predicts the onset of a new flood due to the passage of the Earth through a nebula. Instead of panic, people had laughter, because no one believed in his words. They thought he was crazy. While everyone was laughing, the mad scientist built the ark. The rains did not stop. The world is sinking, but will the main character survive?
An interesting early science fiction story written by Garrett Putman Serviss. A mad scientist offers to help save the world economy with valuable metal. He claims that he mines this metal himself, but actually brings it from the moon. And yet, will metal be able to save the world economy from ruin?
In „Night Life of the Gods”, we meet Hunter Hawk, wealthy eccentric scientist in 1920s America, who, after numerous explosions, manages to invent an „atomic ray” that turns living beings into statues, and a second ray that restores them to their original state. With the help of Megaera, a fetching nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art of transforming statues into people. Together, the two are invincible, especially when th...
For some time, sky pirates took public attention, because everyone was shocked by their brave actions. The handsome and sophisticated captain Alfonso Payton was one of the most daring. They decided to steal the billionaire’s daughter, Helen Grayman, and her servant. Their goal is to squeeze money out of the most wealthy person in the USA. Do these pirates again get what they want?
Garrett Putman Serviss is popular as a science fiction author. His story „A Columbus of Space” about the flight into space. The heroes were in the middle of the cosmos, they were surprised when they saw the Earth. The very Earth where a few days ago they were going in some direction. Yes, they knew where they were. But how did they get there and what will they do next?
Every person is interested to know whether there is life on Mars. Garrett Putman Servissis one of the first writers who touched on this topic. This story contains everything unimaginable: the invasion of people on Mars, ingenious inventions, the first space battle, alien abduction. This should be read to each.
In „The Stray Lamb”, author Thorne Smith draws inspiration from his most famous works, the beloved Topper series. It follows mild-mannered investment banker, cuckold, ordinary, faithful, and dipsomaniac T. Lawrence Lamb. He is given a new perspective on life through the eyes of many different animals as he assumes the shape of many including a stallion, goldfish, dog, lion and many others. Mr. Lamb gains wisdom, fresh insight, and a new much needed exuberance for life as he...
Looking for a satisfying, meticulously exciting adventure with which to while away an afternoon? Look no further than „Squadron of the Damned”, a short story from one of the most early writers in the genre of fantasy and science fiction, David Wright O’Brien. O’Brien’s work was space opera or other routine adventure, but many of his stories betray a strain of humor, not unlike Henry Kuttner’s at that time. Some of the stories were co-written with his close friend William P....
After a „short, dumpy bald-headed guy in civvies” installs an invention – a time transfer device – in a tank that proceeds into the Georgia wilderness on maneuvers, a lightning bolt send the tank and its three operators backward in time. Shortly afterward they notice a single three-toes dinosaur footprint and disturbingly they hear the bloodthirsty scream of a very strange „bird”. „Blitzkrieg in the Past” is a science fiction from American fantasy and science fiction writer...
